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accido writes "As reported by The LA Times, Google has now decided to expand its marketing and data collection to include what you watch on your Tivo. The data collected would help Google, who sells TV ads, show who watches which commercials and who skips right over them. The article outlines how this could be bad for networks that cash in whether you watch the ad or not. Does this mean fewer commercials for viewers? Not likely, but one can hope."

*Regardless* of whether I have good reception or crappy reception, I want to watch something I Tivoed.. even if just paused for 15 minutes to avoid the ads for something I need to watch "close to live" (which is rare).

Of Tivo users skip commercials. I'm sure the other 1% either don't know they have Tivo, don't know how to use Tivo, or watch so much television that their mental capacity to understand the concept of skipping commercials has been severely damaged.

That's true, in part, but the difficulty is that I don't get to choose what commercials I watch. So even though there are some truly horrific shows out there, I just don't watch them. Even if the worst commercial ever produced is only 1/10 as bad, it could still play during a show I do watch, therefore exposing me to it (unless I have a DVR). Therefore, of what I see (rather than TV in general) commercials are usually the worst part. And that's not even getting in to how repetitive they become...

I often enjoy commercials the first time I see them. By the fifteenth time (or worse, second time in one commercial break - curse your advertising directors, CBC!), I am utterly sick of them and wish they'd never been made. Except for that one [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QW3bInxgmc]Subaru Canada ad[/url]. I'm still not tired of that one.

I often enjoy commercials the first time I see them. By the fifteenth time (or worse, second time in one commercial break - curse your advertising directors, CBC!), I am utterly sick of them and wish they'd never been made....

There are 'ads' that show up at the bottom of the first menu (usually called 'star ads') that the user has to specifically go to.. There are nowadays, sometimes, ads that show up under the time banner when you hit pause.. but you can just hit 'down' to make them go away or hit the clear button (like always) to clear all onscreen displays..

You need to provide a citation for "commercials that can't be fast forwarded through".

What advertisers need are more events, like the Superbowl, where it becomes cool to watch commercials. Or do what most Internet sites have done and go with the 15 sec commercial spot instead of the 30 - 60 sec spot.

99% might "fast forward" through them. Although actual commercial "skip" is a special hack you enable yourself.

When this was undone every time the unit cycled power, I was the only one in my household that could handle putting the hack back in place. It's an obscure set of commands sent through the remote that requires a bit of a "knack" to get right.

Even with 30-second skip, you still need to pay attention and know when to stop skipping. There's still an opportunity for some

The article outlines how this could be bad for Networks who cash in weather you watch the ad or not

They have ads there too? Sunny and a 50% chance of Cialis?

I wonder when this arms race for our eyeballs will peak. I'm not angry with targeted ads, overall it makes for a smarter consumer when after a generation or two we learn to identify market-speak at the cost of the last company to the block's poorly-spent campaign. In the mean time there's a greater likelihood I'll chance across something that is actually valuable to me, or a funny Geico ad:)

In the mean time there's a greater likelihood I'll chance across something that is actually valuable to me

In all honesty, I don't think I have ever seen an ad that was of value to me. Maybe I'm just weird or something, but I start with a need and then seek out a solution in a product or service to fulfill it, usually through reviews and such. I never see an ad and then suddenly decide I need the product or service.

true..the geico ads are hilarious, but you know what? i never thought about switching my insurance to geico. every time the commercial starts i'd be thinking "oh great, it's that funny little gecko again, this should be good" instead of "how much are they going to save me this time? should i check it out?"

so that begs the question..can a commercial be so good it's bad?Does too good a commercial, i.e. clever, funny, intriguing, hurt the message the advertiser is trying to send by distracting the viewer with

Um... what kind of a question is that? 99% of the US population? Oh wait, sorry, I see - you were being "ironic" and "cool" because you don't do what everybody else does. No, yeah, you're right, there's absolutely nothing of value on any television channel anywhere, and probably never has been. While we're at it, let's throw out all our radios and computers.

Yeah, alot of people don't realize how much better life is without TV. When I moved out for the first time I didn't have the cash for cable, it was something I could live without. After 1 month of no TV I began to realize how much more time I had for things I always wanted to do. I took up sketching, I go stargazing, even started programming side projects.

TV just brings you down, even if you only watch it for an hour, after that hour you feel lazy and you just want to go to bed or play video games. It ends

The beauty of a Tivo (or MythTV or SageTV) is that you can record 10 things and then just watch 1. You don't have to be faithful and dedicated about it. You can make the whole thing into sort of a primitive video-on-demand system that includes things that would never be formally in a VOD system.

You're basically taking the possibilities present with a single fixed TV schedule and multiplying them by 1000 or 2000.

Yeah, alot of people don't realize how much better life is without TV.

Generally, yes. But you're talking about commercial television, just like people who complain about crappy radio are talking about commercial radio

I'm a regular viewer of of PBS and C-SPAN. The Charlie Rose show, for example, is probably the closest most people will get to an intelligent and informative conversation than they'll have had all year long in their personal lives, reading material included. How is that, or the latest docum

Or sit here posting Anon on the web. Not that I disagree with any of the things you said were more entertaining or enlightening, but you know, sometimes when I am doing some housework, I like to have some pointless trashy TV going, so I can mainly focus on the housework, but feel like I am watching TV.

Yes, much of TV is crap, but you ever tried getting the latest news update on DVD at your local DVD store? How about the weather updates? TV has it's benefits.

Seriously, who the fuck still watches TV? There hasn't been anything good on any channel for years now, not that there was much good on in the first place.

All your neighbors. TV has become a "necessity". I overheard a guy complaining about his cable being out. I quote, "My children haven't had TV in two weeks!" I really had to stifle a laugh.

Go see a play at the local theater, watch a live band at a nearby pub, go for a walk, or read a book. Those are all much more enlightening and entertaining options.

Google will eventually have a system where as you enter the pub, you show your ID, and then that information will go into a database. Read a book? Google will collect the data from Visa and MC and AMEX to see what books you're reading and then use that data to market other shit to you. Local theater? Buy those ticket and well, you have to show your ID for pickup - again, data in the database. Live band? Show ID at the door and pay for those drink with your credit card? There you go.

It's not big brother. It's Google and other companies - Orwell was close. It's not the state that will spy (directly at least), it's going to be corporate American.

The state will just buy the information and technically do nothing wrong.

The first two suggestions you made are quite a bit more expensive than TV. The fact that I can get an "buffet" style service for $1 a day seems like a much better deal than paying for a one time event.

These days, is there anyone left who does NOT block all these data collection and tracking things?

The trouble is that they invent them fast enough that it's hard to keep up. Web bugs, cross site scripts, I block everything I know about, but it takes a little bit of diligence to keep up with it. And some, like TIVO, you can see coming a mile off, so are easy to never start using in the first place.

If we don't stick up for a shit-free internet, soon it will all be commercialized into uselessness. TV 2.0!

> I don't see what's insightful about the parent post--the only way to> totally block all this data collection stuff is to go back to using> something like NCSA Mosaic.>> That's right, can't even have cookies, or JavaScript. Even then there> are the server logs that show the IP address and the referrer but anyway....you are attempting to make this rant to an audience that probably mostly all run some sort of selective script blocker already.

a big pant-load of results based on guessing what the analyzed data means.

For example, I usually skip commercials. Sometimes when I am multi-tasking thus only half-watching I forget to skip the commercials, but I am not watching them either. And so on...

One thing I know for sure, I picked the wrong business, weathermen and marketing analysis experts amount to the same thing; getting paid for guessing with no repercussions for being wrong. A perfect job!

If I was suddenly forced to watch commercials (i.e. no 30 second skip and/or no fast forward) I'd probably dump cable and just watch what I can get on Netflix instead. It would be sad though because there are down-times during the latter parts of my evenings when it's too early to go to bed but I'm too tired to do anything else and I want something passive and relatively low-bandwidth brainpower-wise to do in the meantime, and the few shows TiVo records for me are perfect for that.

It works pretty well most of the time for me. There are several algorithms used for program break detection. The ones that seem to work best are blank frame detection and station logo detection. I find it works well on Discovery, A&E, CBC Newsworld and Speed TV (blank frames), and AMC and other movie channels (logo detection down in the black letterbox bars). It works passably on network TV but tends to get a bit confused when they run the final seconds of the show and the credits in a sidebar next to s

Wow, I had to go back a look, because mine just works. It almost always detects all the commercials on all stations. The algorithm that it uses is the combo blank frame / station logo / everything else. Works great.

I spend way too much money on cable every month. I don't understand why I can't "order" say Gilligan's Island (the one when they find the radioactive seeds) any time I want. I would sit through a commercial or two to be able to watch what I want. I just don't understand why the way we watch TV doesn't change. Instead of focus groups and canceled new sitcoms, let me watch what I know I already want to watch, then I'll watch the commercials too.
How is "The Greatest American Hero" (the first episode they

Netflix has the 3 seasons of Gilligan's Island for rent (I just checked). They also have a bunch of other movies/old TV shows (not GI, except for one of the followup TV movies) available for streaming though.

This article just makes me hate google more and more, you have no idea how many patents they have covering every aspect of every possible search engine. Isn't google using illegal means to gain information for their, financial gain then to bombard us with advertisements. This has to come an end, how far can a company go before it gets out of hand. the way this is going googles going to get worse than microsoft, thats a complement microsoft. Isn't this a breach of privacy? How bad will it become before, anyone will put their foot down? Also, Isn't it illegal with the methods that the networks are using to get personal information, in order to fine tune the battering ram of advertisements the besiege us with every day? Isn't time for the government to put their foot down. For the right of privacy of every person in this country, along with the world, as google's masive hand starts to cover the world.

If Microsoft had done this, it would have been hoarsely cried upon from rooftops with evil and big brother thrown in liberally. When Google does it, there is a positive spin given to it saying that it could mean fewer commercials.Oh the duplicacy....The above one is the only comment that I have seen crying foul, others all skip the issue in different ways. And the score was 1..

Nowadays I read slashdot with the same perspective that I read the inquirer or fox news or msnbc knowing that I should take every se

Well, the parent makes all of its points in the form of a question, and from watching fox news and msnbc I've learned that any time someone asks a leading question to make a point, the question can almost always be answered "no." Let's try it out:

- Isn't this a breach of privacy? No, it's aggregated data, there's nothing personally identifiable about it- Also, Isn't it illegal with the methods that the networks are using to get personal information, in order to fine tune the battering ram of advertisement

> - Isn't this a breach of privacy? No, it's aggregated data, there's nothing personally identifiable about it...only assuming they did everything technically correct, there's no problems with their methodology and they are actually telling the truth.

That's depending on both Tivo and Google to be both correct and "non-evil".

Watching commercials on a Tivo
Now i live in Canada, so I don't have Tivo, but I have the equivalent in Canadian terms. My question is this. Why would anyone in their right mind watch commercials. That's like buying a car and then pushing it around yourself. Definitely not taking advantage of the technology.

because the need time to go take a piss or get a drink?Advertiser are well aware this happens, why do tyou think the volume jumps for commercial? so you can hear it in another room.

Beside, you would make a judgment, but instead look at the data. If you asked me 10 years ago if the music industry would still exists as the giant corporation they are, I would have said no way. Turns out most people will buy music online.

Actually it probably means advert placements for those demographics that skip ads become cheaper, whilst those that actually watch adverts become more expensive. Not a massive shift, but expect to see the cheap slots becoming less sophisticated, and open to ever-smaller companies, which could be a good thing.

Alternatively, maybe the ad-breaks for the skipping-demographics will get shorter, to discourage people from skipping, so ensuring they watch the bother to watch 1 advert that is on (rather than skip

1) "This channel/show is no longer profitable, cancel it"
2) "We are not getting as much per slot as we expect, so lets just make more slots. Just double the commercial breaks and cut the length of the commercial breaks by one third."
3) "let's increase cable rates. Er, more than we originally planned"

If they are able to provide target ads for viewers, this could be good for digital video distribution. This market really needs to go and improve. Cable TV is too overpriced for the "content" they provide. We put the phone on the internet and now its time to put the TV there as well.

While an a purely ethics level I don't care for MS's business practices at least they tend to usually just screw other businesses, Google frankly scares the crap out of me. Its pretty easy to avoid MS but avoiding becoming a google statistic is becoming increasingly impossible.

I don't think such a thing would be popular. Most people don't care, but those few that do would find it easier to use a service with a better privacy policy. Perhaps Bing or Yahoo! could profit from the backlash in the unlikely event that one should materialize.

(...) Does this mean fewer commercials for viewers? Not likely, but one can hope.

Quite possibly not. It would mean more relevant commercials and less annoying flashing and screaming ads. Before Google entered, advertising on the internet with mere text was unheard of. By using very relevant ads both viewers/users and companies benefit.
The issue with todays TV ads is that they are highly irrelevant. It's up to the company to make sure the ad gets displayed at the right time of day. Perhaps Google could improve upon this, so some of us can be freed of vacuum cleaner ads, unless they are